Your God Is Too Small

While I attended a private college prep academy, the chaplain encouraged the freshman class to read a small book entitled, "YOUR GOD IS TOO SMALL" by J. B. Phillips.  The first edition was in 1961 and it was in the fourth printing by 1963. 

This little book created a huge opening for me which I jumped through and never looked back.  It brought freedom and imagination to my personal faith and initiated a search for religious understanding.

Baptized a Lutheran, Sunday School painted a vision of God as a grandfatherly man with a long beard.  I didn't have a grandfather, and the stern image in the stained glass stared down at me disapprovingly.  This portrayal of God stressed perfection and disallowed any sense that I could be worthy, reinforcing feelings of being separate. 

Although a Lutheran, I attended a Roman Catholic Elementary School.  The basic foundation in the missal and mass increased my sense of shame and guilt, but intrigued me with candles and rituals.  With the endless list of saints and angels, my search for acceptance deepened, but the supposed doom of not being a catholic was difficult for a child to bear.

The mystery of the life of Jesus the Christ and His out pouring of compassionate and unconditional love gave me hope, but also brought to my awareness a sense of hypocrisy in organized religion, Lutheran and Catholic alike.  God was an entity to be feared, I was taught, and totally unapproachable by the common man; therefore, I did not court His presence.

My childhood concept of God failed to assist in the many challenges I faced in life.  The spoon fed biblical stories blocked my ability to catch sight of God.  As a result, I began an open hearted search for the real all knowing Spirit willing to lead me through religious futility and frustration. 

My high school years broadened the path of faith, introducing world religions and universal love.  I came to believe that evil could be destroyed by loving kindness towards others, rather than through control and power or shame and guilt leading to submission. God seemed to be telling me, "You have a mind, use it!"  So my search led me onto a spiritual path that I have followed ever since.

 "Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings:  in the end they will see the ultimate Reality, God."  I have not had to wait until 'the end' as Spirit appears to me in all things and in all peoples.  The great Spirit breaks through the small concepts of men and loving kindness expands into eternity.